Tarrant County takes big leap in population

The Texas flag flies near a field of Bluebonnets near Navasota, Texas, Saturday, March 19, 2016.
David J. Phillip
AP

People want to live under the big, bright stars deep in the heart of Texas.

The Houston metro area and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have the top two metro population gains nationwide, says the U.S. Census Bureau. Tarrant County had the sixth-largest population jump in the nation.

The Metroplex’s population increased by about 145,000 people from July 2014 to July 2015, making the population just over 7.1 million.

About 2 million of those people reside in Tarrant County, an increase of about 36,000 people during the same period.

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Maybe it’s the abundance of culture, jobs, top-notch universities, the “big city with a small-town feel” of Fort Worth — as Mayor Betsy Price told the Star-Telegram — or they wanted to see the beauty of bluebonnets personally, but people like Tarrant County and want to live here.

As grand as the growth is, it should never be taken for granted.

The potential aftermath of the “oil bust” hasn’t yet been factored into census data. Oil- and gas-rich areas have been population magnets for years, but many people might have left after oil prices dropped in the winter.

Our numbers might go down, or growth might just slow, but let’s hope not by much.

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